I'm a bit surprised that Polina isn't skating as a Novice this year considering she's 2-3 years younger then the rest of the girls.

She skated in Novice in 2010 and finished sixth: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/sp...20longman.html
She did juniors last year and finished in 7th.
She had a major upgrade in her tech (she did 3T-2T, 3L and 2A last year vs 3F-3T, 3Z, 2A) — so it's great to see her move up.

Went to see the Junior girls live tonight.
Some notes:
Almost all of them were flying down the ice during warm up. Actual programs, they slowed down significantly. It was like moving targets made them go faster.
None of the girls covered the ice well. If the slowest girl is a 4, the fastest is maybe 5.5 out of 10. Camille and Ashley were definitely the fastest.
Most of them flutzed.

Best skating skill - Ashley Cain. She's just like Laura Lepisto. Love watching her stroking during the warm up. She attempted two triple lutz during the warm up, both looked Ured. Ured in her actual program, too. Steped out on her axel. Spins aren't that good. But all thing considered, should have the highest PCS, for SS CH IN. Gracie should have the highest for PE and the other one.

Hannah Miller, triple flip-double toe, triple flutz. good axel. I noticed she was the only one who kept her speed throughout although her footwork was slower than other girls. She's tiny. Must be a head shorter than everyone else.

Gracie Gold - not very flattering dress. Her flip toe combo was good. Lutz was good, but not even close to being Tonyaesque. Irina, Miki all had much better higher, farther lutz. Very wild. A bit like Irina, sloppy, unpolished. I like her axel, but it definitely should not score as high as a few other girls who had better entrance and better flow out of it. Don't think she deserved that kind of score. Her speed is good, definitely not the fastest. Her ice coverage is good, not the best. Basically a work in progress. If she cleans up under someone like Tamara Moskvina, she could be contending for a medal just like Joannie Rochette in 2009-2010.

Mariah Bell is such a star. She's like a mini Sasha cross with a mini poodle. She pranced and pranced. Too bad about her flip combo. Good lutz. Scratchy axel.

Katarina Kulgeyko is ok. One of the two girls that fell. She on her triple sal triple toe. flutzed. Only girl who picked up her stuffed animal thrown to her.

Danse Macabre is getting very annoying. Same with swan lake. The other girls are just OK. None of them stood out for me.

As to Gracie Gold, she looked a little tight tonight-she can hardly be used to the hype, since she has had like one JGP; but she came through. Can I say I am thrilled to see a US lady with decent height on the jumps, no flutzing, no lipping, and no UR's in an SP?

Went to see the Junior girls live tonight.
Some notes:
Almost all of them were flying down the ice during warm up. Actual programs, they slowed down significantly. It was like moving targets made them go faster.
None of the girls covered the ice well. If the slowest girl is a 4, the fastest is maybe 5.5 out of 10. Camille and Ashley were definitely the fastest.
Most of them flutzed.

Best skating skill - Ashley Cain. She's just like Laura Lepisto. Love watching her stroking during the warm up. She attempted two triple lutz during the warm up, both looked Ured. Ured in her actual program, too. Steped out on her axel. Spins aren't that good. But all thing considered, should have the highest PCS, for SS CH IN. Gracie should have the highest for PE and the other one.

Hannah Miller, triple flip-double toe, triple flutz. good axel. I noticed she was the only one who kept her speed throughout although her footwork was slower than other girls. She's tiny. Must be a head shorter than everyone else.

Gracie Gold - not very flattering dress. Her flip toe combo was good. Lutz was good, but not even close to being Tonyaesque. Irina, Miki all had much better higher, farther lutz. Very wild. A bit like Irina, sloppy, unpolished. I like her axel, but it definitely should not score as high as a few other girls who had better entrance and better flow out of it. Don't think she deserved that kind of score. Her speed is good, definitely not the fastest. Her ice coverage is good, not the best. Basically a work in progress. If she cleans up under someone like Tamara Moskvina, she could be contending for a medal just like Joannie Rochette in 2009-2010.

Mariah Bell is such a star. She's like a mini Sasha cross with a mini poodle. She pranced and pranced. Too bad about her flip combo. Good lutz. Scratchy axel.

Katarina Kulgeyko is ok. One of the two girls that fell. She on her triple sal triple toe. flutzed. Only girl who picked up her stuffed animal thrown to her.

Danse Macabre is getting very annoying. Same with swan lake. The other girls are just OK. None of them stood out for me.

Flattfan, how can you compare JUNIORS to Senior ladies in terms of presentation and ice coverage? There are reasons why they are in Juniors, even if they have the big tricks and often times it's the presentation side of things. Also, I like your nitpicking of Gracie when many of the same criticisms could be said of Rachel (not completely stretched line, speed not the fastest in the group (this wasn't her most "free" performance of this program by far, etc)

Sounds to me like you are worried that a couple of these girls will give Rachel a run for her money if she stays in and focuses on skating.

For the record, Gracie would NEVER go work with Moskvina. If anything, I would bet she goes to Tom Dickson (who her main coach has a lot of respect for and likes a lot of the interesting work he's done) or Suzie Wynn (who's local) for choreography. She's been focusing on the tech side of things and being clean and consistent with the hard tricks and she's DONE that...

She will probably be junior for jgp then compete in seniors for 2013 nationals. And I could see her going to senior worlds in 2013 if she nabs one of the spots.

I think some of it might depend on how she places at Junior Worlds. If she wins a medal she's guaranteed a spot on the Grand Prix, plus she has one of the top scores of the season which also gives her a Grand Prix. She's right up there in scores ahead of Sotnikova and just behind Lipnitskaia and Tuktamisheva.

First hurdle down for Gracie. I'm sure she'll win but to silence her critics (me), I'd like to see her win in a convincing fashion. Her jumps are great, but I'm not much impressed with anything else yet. She's like every other jumping bean out there...I'm just waiting for that something special that will set her apart.